Add, subtract or do neither

the role of somatic manipulations in Biblical rites of reclassification

Saul M. Olyan

pp. 203-211

in: Matthias Jung, Michaela Bauks, Andreas Ackermann (eds), Dem Körper eingeschrieben, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

Somatic manipulations typically play a central role in biblical representations of rites of reclassification. Along with other rites that do not focus on manipulating the body, somatic manipulations function both to make real and to mark status changes. In this paper, I treat three texts: Exod 29,1-37, which concerns the sanctification of Aaron and his sons to serve as priests; Lev 14,1-20, which describes the aggregation rites of the person whose skin disease has been healed; and Num 8,5-22, which speaks of the separation of the Levites for cultic service. I focus primarily on the ways in which a body might be manipulated for the purpose of ritual reclassification through the removal or subtraction of characteristic features (e.g., hair) or coverings (e.g., clothes) as well as through the introduction or addition of ritual substances such as oil, sacrificial blood, and cleansing water, or coverings such as new clothes. I also consider somatic manipulations that neither add nor subtract (e.g., the physical movement of the body to a different locus) and non-somatic rites such as laundering and offering sacrifices.